AFL-CIO Unions Representing Over 60,000 Kaiser Permanente Employees Overwhelmingly Ratify First National Contract in Health Care.

Business Editors

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 27, 2000

Pact Calls for Involvement of Frontline Care Givers in Decisions

Affecting Staffing Levels, Quality of Care

Local labor unions representing 95 percent of Kaiser Permanente's 64,000 unionized employees have already ratified the first national contract in the health care industry, one that brings front line care givers into crucial decisions on staffing levels, quality of care and business planning through a unique "partnership" process.

According to AFL-CIO officials, "yes" votes exceeded 90 percent in most units, and local unions representing the remaining 2811 workers are expected to ratify the agreement by early next week.

The contract affects 7.6 million of Kaiser Permanente's 8.1 million patients nationwide and members of 25 local unions in California, Oregon, Washington, Ohio, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC.

"With this agreement, Kaiser Permanente is creating industry standards for collaboration among all its employees on behalf of enhanced patient care," John J. Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, told a press briefing today. "What this means for consumers is better quality health care from an institution that respects and embraces the contributions of working men and women, and our unions and the AFL-CIO will proudly promote Kaiser as the health care provider of choice for working families and for union members."

The five-year contract was negotiated over the last seven months using a "common issues" bargaining process instead of traditional adversarial bargaining.

Dr. David Lawrence, Chairman and CEO of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., said a unique partnership between Kaiser and a coalition of AFL-CIO unions created three years ago led to the groundbreaking agreement.

"This historic agreement further strengthens our partnership with labor at a time when our shared focus on the patient is paramount," Dr. Lawrence said. "In 1997 when we first announced the partnership between our physician-managers and our unions, I knew that together we would challenge the highly competitive marketplace with a better alternative to improving health care for our members."

Sweeney said that at a time when the health care industry is roiled by public concerns over the "corporatization" of health care, the agreement brings labor and physician managers together through a first-ever, joint decision-making process to improve quality and service. "Although medical decisions at Kaiser have always been made by doctors, and not by business executives, this agreement goes even further," he said.

"It gives front line health care workers a voice in decision-making to enhance the quality of care and service, addressing the crucial issues of staffing, patient safety and patient satisfaction."

The lead negotiators of the contract --- Peter diCicco, Executive Director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Union, and Leslie Margolin, Senior Vice President of Workforce Development for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan,, Inc. --- said the agreement attempts to "align quality of care goals with workforce practices" by:

-- increasing the contribution of front line staff in decisions about important
consumer issues like quality of care, service, staffing and enhancing patient
safety, as well as about business planning;

-- providing for joint labor-management development, administration, promotion,
and evaluation of a state-of-the-art reporting system to enhance patient safety
and quality of care;

-- maintaining fair and equitable wages and benefits and improving standards of
employment;

-- providing for performance improvement through continuing joint efforts to
redesign business systems and work processes that involve affected employees
and their unions, and providing fair opportunity for current employees to
perform new work through retraining or re-deployment;

-- providing for the establishment of mutually agreed-upon performance targets
that support the enhancement of quality care and patient satisfaction, and
increased efficiency;

-- providing greater opportunity for employees to impact organizational
performance and share in the success of Kaiser Permanente;

-- enhancing KP's reputation as the employer of choice for highly skilled and
motivated health care workers.

In addition, the contract provides numerous additional opportunities for improving the work environment for employees, ranging from personal/work life balance to employee health and safety, education and training that will become the work of local union/management partnership teams over the life of the contract.

It creates a jointly-financed and jointly- administered Labor-Management Trust Fund to further training and other requirements of advancing the partnership at all levels in Kaiser-Permanente..

The AFL-CIO is a federation of 67 national unions with 13 million members.

Kaiser Permanente is America's leading integrated health care organization. Founded in 1945, it is a nonprofit group practice pre-payment program with headquarters in Oakland, California.